Cowboy Cookies

The bigger the cookie, the more chewy it can be. So if you like chewy cookies, make them big. If you want a chewy cookie, cook them until the edges are browned, but not the whole cookie. If you cook the cookie until it is all nicely browned, it will be more crisp.

Prep time:20 minutes

Cook time:20 minutes

Yield:Makes 2 to 3 dozen cookies.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 sticks butter (6 ounces, 12 Tbsp), at room temperature

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 large eggs*, beaten

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1 cup sweetened flaked coconut (we used shredded)

1 cup chopped pecans

*This recipe is a half recipe of the original, which calls for 3 eggs. To get half of 3 eggs, you can either just use only one egg, or beat two eggs and remove about 2 Tbsp.

Method

1 Preheat oven to 350°F with racks in upper and lower third. Line two large baking sheets with Silpat or parchment paper.

2 In a large bowl, vigorously whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

3 Place butter in a standing electric mixer and beat on medium speed until smooth and light, about 1 minute. Slowly add in the white sugar and brown sugar, and beat to combine, about 2 more minutes. Add half the eggs, beat, and then add the other half and beat again. Add the vanilla extract and beat again.

4 Lower the speed of the mixer to low and slowly add the flour mixture, until just combined. Add the chocolate chips, oats, coconut, and pecans, mixing until just combined.

5 If you want large cookies, drop about 1/4 cup lumps of the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, separated by 3 inches to allow for enough room for the cookies to spread as they cook. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes, then rotate the cookie sheets front to back and top to bottom, and bake for an additional 7 to 9 minutes. For smaller cookies, use about 2 Tbsp of the cookie dough per cookie and cook for 13 to 16 minutes, rotating half way.

Note that if you are using a dark baking sheet, it will absorb more heat, and you won't need as much baking time. Also, the top rack will bake more quickly because heat rises.

6 Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Then remove the cookies to a rack to cool completely.

You'll likely need to work in batches, depending on the size of your oven and your baking sheets.

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Cowboy cookies — yes!! My grandmother had a very similar recipe (minus the chocolate chips) that was always a family favorite, but I didn’t realize it was so well known, and had never seen the recipe printed anywhere besides the family cookbook. This is very exciting, and I look forward to making a batch WITH chocolate chips soon.

The cookies freeze well, and so does the dough in batch-sized portions.
This is the oatmeal cookie base I use for everything, just changing up the “mix-ins” for special effect. Good with almonds, orange zest, golden raisins and pumpkin pie spice mix, for example — or with some finely ground coffee and cocoa powder blended into the flour, and a drift of cardamom. Tried them once for Valentine’s Day with dried raisin cherries and almonds, with a thumb-dent holding a dab of marzipan in the middle. Always the vanilla, no matter what else gets in there.
I’ll take an oatmeal cookie over plain tollhouse style any day.

I’m sorry Elise, but I don’t see how these can be any better than your own Awesome Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. I admit I haven’t tried this Cowboy Cookie recipe, but I can’t imagine they even come close to yours. Those were some of the finest cookies I’ve ever tasted!

My family has been making cowboy cookies for three generations! I never heard about Laura Bush doing it. I personally omit the coconut. Can’t stand it in sweet food. I also add raisins or craisins or other chopped up dried fruit. We just finished a batch with sugar covered sliced almonds from trader joes. Bought them by accident, but they were delicious!
I’ve always used the quick oats b/c I thought regular wouldn’t work. I’ll try it next time with the regular.
Love your website. You are the first person I go to to look up a recipe.
buon appetito!

You can make the entire full recipe divide the dough in half and put one half in the fridge for a couple of hours before baking and the other half in sealed plastic bags in your freezer. They will keep for a couple of months. I have made similar cookies with the eggs and leavening and they freeze and bake just fine.

The American taste is for sweet, sweeter sweetest.
I made half the recipe and I substituted raisins for the chocolate and unsweetened coconut for the sweet stuff. I also used hazelnuts, as those where in my cupboard. They tasted absolutely lovely and sweet enough.
I hate to think what they taste like if I would have used more sweetness. Writing from Europe….

Made these cookies for “cookie day” with my family…hands down these were the “hit of the day”! I increased the coconut by 1/2 cup, did half pecans and half walnuts…
Don’t try and make them smaller than the 1/4 C size they don’t turn out as well.
These cookies didn’t last 3 days in our house…there are only two of us (although half went home with my SIL)!
Enjoy!!!!

Hello Elise, I like this recipe, but I am allergic to oats. Is there anything I can replace them with, or can I just leave them out?
Thank you! It’s tough for me to do recipes like this, because of my allergies!

Oats are vital to this cookie recipe. I’m so sorry about your allergy Max! That’s a pain. You might try leaving them out, but then you would want to substitute with more flour. How much more I have no idea. It’s sort of like making an oatmeal cookie without the oatmeal.

I don’t know if you have any other grain allergies, but I bought some barley that was processed in such a way as to look almost identical to rolled oats. There are other grains processed like this — and even machines that flake grains at home. I bought mine in the bulk section of a natural foods store.

Oats, coconut, chocolate, and pecans? That’s too many of my favorites all in one place, which means I’m going to have to rustle up a batch of these pronto! I’ve been baking so much for the holidays another few dozen won’t hurt, right?

You had me at coconut, oatmeal and pecans. I made these as 2 tbsp size cookies and they totally kept their shape and are nice and crunchy — and still a pretty big cookie. Yummy! Next time I would use dark chocolate chips (I found the semi-sweet Guittard ones that I used to be too sweet).

Thanks for the recipe. I baked them today at the facility where I mentor a 12 year old boy. He pronounced them very good, and this is after previous baking sessions where we baked coconut drop cookies, chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies. Just wanted you to know Cowboy Cookies get the stamp of approval from a 12 y.o. boy and his mentor.
ps: the staff members he gifted some to loved them also.

Hi Dennis, it sounds like perhaps your baking powder was old. Baking powder is a combination of a dry acid and a dry base, which over time will react with each other even in a dry state, resulting in the baking powder losing its leavening power. If your baking powder is over 6 months old, it may not work any more.

Visited the Bush Library in Dallas recently and also lunched at Cafe 43, which has delicious food! These cookies were sold at the reception desk, in a package of three
for $5 with recipe included. They were so scrumptious that I finally decided to bake them today, only realizing afterwards that this recipe appears online with one other ingredient (baking soda) not listed on the printed recipe. So, mine were baked without it and not sure what the difference in taste would be. It is a very large recipe so halved it using two eggs, half of everything else. Baked on parchment using a 2 tbsp. scoop, making 34 large cookies. In my oven 11 mins. worked best, rotating the sheets once, using only one sheet at a time. They are very good, but thinking they are just a tad dry. Perhaps sitting overnight will allow all flavors to meld and they’ll be great. Will bake again, adding the soda, but also reducing the amounts of oats, coconut, chocolate chips and nuts by a tad. Time will tell.
Enjoy!

I used a mixture of salted and unsalted butter (with additional salt), followed the recipe to a T and yet my cookies are not firm, they sank into thin crispy cookie pancakes.. They still tasted good but they did not come out how they look in the picture :/